Generating a WPF Smart Client using the Smart Client Producer

In a previous posts, we showed you the output of the WPF Smart Client Producer. In this post we’ll show you how to generate a WPF smart client. It will be a WPF application consuming WCF services thanks to a proxy and the data will be stored in a database.

Creating the solution

Start by creating a new CodeFluent Project. We’ll use the “ContactManager Sample Model” for the purpose of this article.

Add a new Class Library project named “ContactManager” to your solution. It will be used to host the generated files corresponding to your Business Object model and WCF service’s contracts. Add it a folder called “ServicesConfig” that will be used to store your WCF service’s configuration files.

Add a new Class Library project named “ContactManager.Proxy” to your solution. It will be used to host the generated files corresponding to the proxy.

Add a new SQL Server Database project named “ContactManager.Persistence” to your solution. It will be used to host your generated SQL scripts.

Add a new WPF application project named “ContactManager.SmartClient” to your solution. It will be used to host the generated files of your WPF application. Remove the MainWindow.xaml file since we are going to generate our own. Also, by default, Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 sets the target framework to .NET Framework 4 Client Profile. Go to the property of your project and change the target to .NET Framework 4 in order to use the standard libraries.

Adding the producers

The Business Object Model Producer

To generate your Business Objects model, add the Business Object Model Producer to your CodeFluent Entities project by clicking “Add new producer” on the “Producers” folder in Visual Studio’s Solution Explorer, expand the Business Layer Producers node and select it:

In the Source Directory field select the “Server” folder located at “CodeFluent Entities installation folder > Modeler >Templates > ServiceModel”. And in the Target Directory field, select the folder called ServicesConfig located in your Class Library project called ContactManager, then click OK.

Here is the visual studio solution you should have by now, each project containing the generated code (your database should have been created too):

Building and running the application

At this stage, your application has been generated and is almost ready to be built and run. Since your WPF application uses the Proxy you need to add your Class Library project called ContactManager.Proxy as a reference to your WPF application project called ContactManager.SmartClient project.

Now you can build your solution, then run your WCF service as you usually do or thanks to the CodeFluent Entities Hoster using your generated service configuration files. Finally start your WPF application.

Tip: If you use the CodeFluent Entities Hoster, a quick and easy way to ensure the executable is automatically copied to the output directory is to add a reference to it. This is absolutely not required to compile your Business Object model (your Class Library called ContactManager), it’s just a shortcut to have the executable in the output directory without having to create post-build events.

And tadaaa! You’ve created your 100% functional WPF smart client without a single line of code!